There is a distinction between died with Covid 19 and died of Covid 19. Our data doesn't show the importance of Covid 19 as a part of that death. Was the death of a relatively healthy person entirely due to Covid 19, was the death of someone already very close to the end of life but aquired the virus in the institution in which they were dying. People have been reporting that relations have had Covid 19 registered on death certificates where there has been no sign of infection.
We might not be the worst in any particular risk factor, but the effects are cumulative, dense population, very interconnected population within the UK and abroad, poverty, long life with chronic health problems, elderly population, ethnic diversity, high density housing, lattitude- Vitamin D deficieny especially as we built up to the peak.
There is evidence (although not conclusive) that the virus was present in the UK population prior to the earliest known cases, easily concealed by normal seasonal respiritory illnesses, a lack of knowledge and testing.
The real comparison comes long term at how many excess deaths countries have had. Will deathrates in the autumn be lower than usual because a large proportion of the frailest in society died in the spring? Will they increase because of delays in medical treatment?
Different govermnents will manipulate data to make themselves look good and minimise the problem on paper, or to justify the costs of dealing with the virus. Different countries have different systems for data reporting. Data reporting has changed through the pandemic as more is known and the situation changes.